The film chronicles Taylor's fourth and fifth marriages, both of which were to Burton. According to producer Larry Thompson there is plenty of chemistry between the pair, who have an 18-year age gap.

Thompson told E! News: "We had seen him [Bowler] on tape and liked him but wanted to confirm the chemistry between the two. But this morning we had Lindsay and Grant come into a room at Lifetime and the chemistry exploded.

"It was just Fourth of July firecrackers going off in the room. We knew from the chemistry that Liz and Dick live again.

"Chemistry means movie magic for sex," Thompson added. "This movie will definitely have as much sex as Lifetime will allow. Richard Burton was quite older than Elizabeth Taylor. This is from a visual point of view just about equal to Liz and Dick. Visually speaking, it is a perfect match."

The actors met for the first time today (May 24) in Los Angeles for a screen test, with Thompson revealing that they read three separate scenes from the script.